Crossing Paths
by Abeh
Summary: The annual event is coming up for Seniors at Konoha High, powderpuff, also known as girl's football. When it is made known that guys coach the girls and girls coach guys, things may get a little stirred up. Especially since these practices ignite a once diffused spark between the two former best friends. "Their two faces flushed as they realized their situation, 'Hey Hinata.'"


**AN:** Hey guys, sorry that I've been gone for a while. This is yet another SasuHina fanfic, which isn't surprising, but this time I am going to take a crack at chapter stories. I'm sorry that I've been gone, but with junior year and all the work it comes with, I just haven't had spare time, leaving me with a sort of writer's block. However, due to recent events, I have found my inspiration to do so. Of course, this fanfic will be based on some of my life events, as they often are. Anyways, I will try not to write too much for author's notes, so here we go, enjoy!

PS: I'm typing this in class right now, because I refuse to do homework. Procrastination kills.

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It was a rather sunny summer day, with a slight breeze, thus perfect weather to play some catch and a 10 year old Hyuuga Hinata thought so as well. Her short purple hair flowed in the wind as she focused on her surroundings.

She was a mere 5th grader in elementary school, playing with a football during lunch recess. She wore a baggy and heavy jacket, with the Hyuuga symbol on the back. Although she was extremely hot on the inside, she wouldn't dare take it off, to avoid embarrassment.

"Hinata! Throw it already!" An impatient raven haired boy yelled at her.

"Ano.. uhh gomen Sasuke! I was just checking the wind patterns and uh-uhhh" she stammered as she realized that instead of taking in her surroundings, she was gawking at her idol, Uzumaki Naruto who was arguing with Lee about who could throw better.

"Hn, sure." The young Uchiha scoffed. He rolled his eyes, noticing that her attention was taken by his loser best friend. Sasuke started running down the field as he was trying to make the throw harder for Hinata to aim at.

However, like the many times before, she surprised him by throwing a perfect spiral, right where Sasuke was heading. He grinned in approval as he had to do barely any work to catch the impeccable throw from Hinata.

"Nice throw Hinata-chan!" An obnoxious voice yelled from across the field. Hinata turned around, only to find that the voice who captivated her attention was from her one and only crush. Sasuke, pestered that his game of catch with Hinata was disrupted, threw the football back harshly at the blushing Hinata, jealousy fueling his throw.

Hinata unprepared for such a throw, was not able to catch the football in time. The football hit her right in the middle of her nonexistent chest, knocking the air out of her lungs. "Ugh!" Hinata yelled as her last word before she dropped to the ground.

Seeing this, Sasuke ran as fast as he could to the shy Hyuuga, but because Naruto was closer, he reached her first. When Hinata noticed Naruto's close proximity to her, she fainted without another glance. As soon as Sasuke got there, he punched Naruto in the left arm for being so dense and unaware of his effects on her.

"Hinata, please get up, I'm sorry." Sasuke said softly as he placed her delicate head on his knees. His eyes were filled with sorrow as he realized that he was one the main people to blame for this incident as well.

"Ano.. uh" Hinata started as her pale lavender eyes blinked in confusion. "What happened?" she finished.

"Well... Sasuke-teme threw a fast one at you, and it hit you in the chest. And.. I don't really know what happened after that, because when I tried to help, you just fainted." Naruto said dumbfounded.

"Shut up dobe. Hinata are you okay?" Sasuke said, words dripping with remorse.

"Yeah, of course… uhh.. can we just keep throwing Sasuke-kun?"

Surprised by her choice of suffix, Sasuke stammered "Uhh y-yeah of course, lemme run down, here t-take th-the ball." Sasuke ran down, mentally punching himself in the face for sounding so lame around his best friend and his other friend.

Hinata still teetering, tried to look for Sasuke, but the sun was causing his dark figure to blur. Hinata blinked and randomly threw the ball to where she believed Sasuke was to be. Perplexed by her lack of aim on her throw, Sasuke ran quickly through the grass, jumping in the air, only barely catching the poorly thrown football. He landed on the ground harshly, as he closed his eyes awaiting for the pain, that was sure to come.

"Wow! Sasuke-kun that was amazing!" Sasuke opened up his eyes one more only to be staring at a pair of feet wearing red heels, with a perfectly pedicured set of toes. He looked up in despair, as he already knew who it was. "That was a great catch Sasuke, you're such a good catch. " Sakura smiled brightly while trying to bat her eyes, in an attempt to look cute.

"Yeah, forehead is right Sasuke-kun, you are a natural at football!" Another girl, with long blonde hair and a purple shirt and skirt to match, reclaimed.

"Get out of here Ino-pig, he doesn't need your input. He already knows that he's the best at anything and everything" Sakura kissed up.

Sasuke finally got up disgruntled, ignoring the many pleas from the two girls about helping him up. He peered around, looking for Hinata. When he finally set eyes on her, she saw her wet eyes close to bursting into tears. Sasuke grinned, showing her that he was alright, and tried to show with his black onyx eyes that he was fine and she shouldn't worry about him.

An annoyingly high-pitched voice interrupted their non-verbal conversation, "I mean, if Hinata-chan hadn't thrown such a bad throw, you wouldn't have to hurt yourself to get it." Sasuke looked back at Sakura who was smirking, proud of her diss.

Sasuke, enraged at Sakura for her obvious attempt in trying to make Hinata her inferior, glared at her before opening his mouth to argue with her. Whilst being strikingly calm, Sasuke replied, "Sakura, if you think that was such a bad throw.. Why don't you try? Here you go" he handed her the football, careful not to make skin contact, "Show her how its done. I'll run down."

Sakura ambivalent about the situation, she was elated that she was able to capture Sasuke's attention for once, but was nervous because she had never even touched a football before. Disgusted by the mud and dirt covering the "pig skin" she looked beyond herself to find Sasuke way down the field. "Um Sasuke-kun! Can you come closer? I can barely even see you from over here!"

Sasuke fought the urge to roll his eyes, as he said "Oh but this is the same distance and circumstances in which Hinata threw that last throw at me. If anything, this time I'm closer," he said with fake innocence. But, the impatient Sasuke, annoyed with her stalling, snidely remarked, "Unless, you can't beat her…"

Sakura's inner self yelled at her for being so ridiculous, if the meek Hinata could do it, she sure as hell could as well. Sasuke grinned knowing he got to her, by bringing up competition. As Sakura cranked her arm back, Sasuke started running around again, Sakura noticed this and got confused on how she was supposed to throw it to him when he was constantly moving. When she finally thought that she had perfectly guessed where Sasuke was going to go, she threw it as hard as she could, closing her eyes to try and increase the strength of her throw.

Laughing and mocking could be heard in the background, as Sakura opened her eyes, she found that the ball had not travelled but a couple feet from her. Sasuke tried to process what just happened; he saw Sakura throw it as hard as she could, yet, because of her lack of technique, she ended up throwing it almost directly at the ground, only making the ball bounce to receive its distance. Sasuke almost felt bad for her, it was that bad of a throw. However, he just tried to suppress a chuckle as he realized that he proved Hinata to be an amazing player.

Sakura's face has never been as red as this before, her face almost matched with her bright red shoes. Some couldn't tell if it was from anger or embarrassment, but she stomped over to Naruto who was clenching his stomach in pain from laughing too much, knocking him on the upside of his head.

"Owwww Sakura-chan! Why me? Everyone else was laughing…" Naruto's eyes brightened as he saw that Sakura got even madder by his statement. He instantly regretted saying anything, as his eyes looked at Sakura, pleading for forgiveness.

Hinata, however, could not keep her composure as well as her best friend, Sasuke, did. Sasuke looked at her in amusement, when Hinata could not help, but to release a couple chuckles from Sakura's throw and Naruto's mistakes.

Just as the two silently agreed that they would stray from the crowd in order to finish their day with another hour of catch, Sakura ran up to Hinata. Hinata panicked as she thought of the rage that she had indirectly caused to Sakura. "Oh Hinata-chan!" Her eyes glinted with mischief as she continued, "You can't play football with Sasuke-kun!"

"Hm, a-ano why not Sakura-chan?" Hinata asked with much confusion.

"Oh, uh-uhh cause girls don't play football silly! And you certainly can not keep up with Sasuke-kun!"

Hinata's face was full with disappointment. Who was she kidding, of course she couldn't. What made her think that she could hang around the most popular and athletic boy in school? She had brought dishonor to her family, because she wasn't staying in her place. She looked up to Sasuke, who looked like he was about to maul Sakura, but she was confused as to why.

Sakura's high pitched voice caused her to not finish her train of thoughts as she commented "Girls like us play cheerleader and cheer on the boys. You can't possibly play football and still be a girl. Come on Hinata, I'll take you over to Ino, and we'll play cheerleader, okay?" Hinata hesitantly nodded, although she really did not want to participate in such a manner where she had to be loud and peppy, she complied because she knew that this was her place in the world. She silently waved to Sasuke before being dragged away by Sakura.

Sasuke watched as his best friend got stolen from her to play lousy cheerleading. He saw Sakura walk towards Naruto, whispering in his ear, while looking at Sasuke. Not much later, he saw Naruto running up to him with all the other guys straying along with him. "Oi Sasuke! Let's play some football. Enough playing with girls man, they can't come to par with us. Let's go, and don't expect me to go easy on you because you were practicing with a girl." Naruto laughed.

Although Sasuke heavily disagreed with all of Naruto's statements, knowing the precision that Hinata had, whilst still being able to throw reasonably far, he was bored and was not about to watch Sakura and the other girls cheer lead, even if it included Hinata. So, he allowed to be dragged into a 5v5 game with Naruto, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Lee, Choji, Neji, Gaara, and Kankuro.

The wind blew as they went to join their friends. There, the two continued on their paths, in separate directions.


End file.
